by Roger Brown
In this post I want to show where Scrum fits in the greater scheme of things now that we are well into the 21st Century. The context here is software development, where Scrum got its start. Scrum is used for many other types of work now but we are going to stick with software in this post. We will see that Scrum is just one tool in the set for achieving business agility.
A frequently asked question in Scrum classes is this: ”Is Scrum best for every type of project?” My answer is “No”. I will explain this answer in three different ways in my next 3 posts. In this one, I will present a mashup four-quadrant model derived from two prior sources that gives us an easy way to compare two fairly obvious work characteristics to known process frameworks. (more…)
I was invited to speak at Agile SoCal on 6/18/14 and offered the topic of “The Agile Coaching Profession”. I knew from previous sessions that many of the regulars are coaches or do some coaching in their work so I thought it would be fun to share my view of the profession. (more…)
One of the most frequent Scrum questions I get in my travels is this:
“How can we improve our Sprints so that we don’t run out of time for testing?”
The answer is simple. Stop treating your Sprints like a short waterfall. You run out of testing time because team members are still working in silos and think that testing comes after coding. Instead, we want to use Agile and Lean principles to improve our Sprint flow, reduce risk and get more done with less effort. (more…)
The Agile Testing Pyramid is a handy way of describing the difference between traditional software testing and testing for iterative development. The differences are important for Agile success and require re-thinking and re-tooling for many organizations. (more…)
We briefly interrupt our series on Agile Transition to bring you a shallow dip into a very deep pool. At www.agilecamp.org, Jeff McKenna and I gave mini-workshop on the importance of cultivating mindfulness and accessing presence when coaching others. Most of us equate mindfulness with stillness and meditation. While there is huge value in such practices, here we are talking about active mindfulness while serving others. All of the common coaching skills require some level of self-awareness. A coach who can access presence while serving their client will have more success, both from being more capable in their craft and by nurturing mindfulness in their client. (more…)